The present invention relates generally to seat labeling, and more particularly, to a system for dynamic seat labeling by displaying customer specific messages.
Reserved seats are commonplace in theaters, stadiums, airplanes, trains, and other common carriers. Reserved seats are becoming more common in movie theaters and other venues where seating is on a first come first served basis. The reserved seat enables a person to reserve an unoccupied seat for a particular purpose, event or duration without concern of being the first to reach the seat.
Reserved seats typically are pre-assigned and associated with a ticket, record locator, or other identifier. Other times, for example in the airline industry, the reserved seat is also associated with the particular identity of the person to whom the reserved seat was issued. The ticket holder is given the right to occupy the reserved seat for the event to which the reserved seat is assigned. The ticket holder of this reserved seat either presents the ticket and is directed towards the seat or is allowed to find the seat on his/her own.
When the ticket holder of the seat is allowed individually to find the seat, a delay is often created. One reason for the delay is because the seat configuration may be confusing to the ticket holder. Another reason for the delay is because the location of the seat number or seat marker is not readily identifiable with the correct seat. Yet another reason for the delay is because the ticket holder has to stop and search for the reserved seat. Lastly, the ticket holder simply forgets his seat number and sits in the wrong seat causing confusion among the other patrons which results in an additional delay.
The delay by the ticket holder in locating and occupying the correct seat may increase the total turn-time of an event. The turn-time is increased when the time to occupy a facility or board a vehicle increases because of the delay caused by the individual ticket holders. One example is in the airline industry. The airplane turn-time at the gate is a critical issue for most airlines. When passengers enplane time increases, it affects the total turn-time by decreasing the number of turns, i.e., events that can be accomplished in a given duration. Turn-times are important because they relate to when the next activity may begin and are often one of the limiting factors in critical path scheduling. Also, the inability to find the correct seat may cause dissatisfaction among or between ticket holders. Therefore, there is a need to have a dynamic system for seat identification that lessens the uncertainty of locating the correct seat in a timely fashion.
It would be beneficial to use existing technology in a novel and inventive way to solve or improve the uncertainty of locating an assigned seat. Electronic paper and RF tag technologies may help in this regard.
Electronic paper is a developing technology and includes digital ink, electronic ink, digital paper, electronic paper, and other types of electronic displays now being developed. The electronic paper may change an image upon a display when a power source is available and will hold the image upon the display when a power source is unavailable.
One type of electronic paper is photonic ink. Photonic ink is a substance called P-Ink or “photonic ink”, and is described in the paper: Arsenault, A. C., Miguez, Hi, Kitaev, V., Ozin, G. A. & Manners, I. A.: “A Polychromic, Fast Response Metallopolymer Gel Photonic Crystal with Solvent and Redox Tunability A Step Towards Photonic Ink; Advanced Materials”, in press, 17 Mar. 2003. The photonic ink may change an image upon a display when a power source is available and will hold the image upon the display when a power source is unavailable. The first developed electronic inks have a black and white mode and the newer photonic inks have a color mode. The ink's mode for displaying an image depends upon a process called diffraction. The ink contains nanospheres of silicon dioxide that form colloidal crystals. When light bounces off the colloidal crystals, interference eliminates some wavelengths, giving the reflected light a certain color. To make the color of the ink tunable, a polymer gel is packed between the colloidal crystals. This gel swells when it is soaked in solvent and shrinks when it dries. The nanospheres” spacing dictates the wavelength of light that they reflect, so swelling changes the film's color of the image by shifting the color spectrum. The swelling gel conducts electricity. Applying a voltage makes it increasingly positively charged, which determines how much solvent it sucks up and the color displayed. Altering the voltage tunes the image. Removing the voltage freezes the gel, which statically holds the image on the display.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) uses transponders, usually called RF Tags, which have an antenna and chip with memory. Its history can be traced back to “friend or foe” transponders (transmitter responder) fitted to aircraft in World War II, through scientific work in the 70s, to animal identification tags introduced in USA and UK in the 80s. Growth in the 90s was rapid particularly in two fields, access control (contactless identification passes) and car security. Many modern car keys contain an RFID transponder that is recognized by a circuit in the steering column.
A basic RFID system comprises an antenna or coil, a transceiver (with decoder), and a transponder (RF tag) electronically programmed with unique information. Often the antenna is packaged with the transceiver and decoder to become a reader (a.k.a. interrogator), which can be configured either as a handheld or a fixed-mount device. The reader emits radio waves depending upon its power output and the radio frequency used. When an RF tag passes through the electromagnetic zone, it detects the reader's activation signal. The reader decodes the data encoded in the tag's integrated circuit and the data is passed to the host computer for processing.
RF tags are categorized as either active or passive. Active RF tags are powered by an internal battery and are typically read/write, i.e., tag data can be rewritten and/or modified. An active tag's memory size varies according to application requirements; some systems operate with up to 1 MB of memory. In a typical read/write RFID work-in-process system, a tag might give a machine a set of instructions, and the machine would then report its performance to the tag. This encoded data would then become part of the tagged part's history. The battery-supplied power of an active tag generally gives it a longer read range. The trade off is greater size, greater cost, and a limited operational life.
Passive RF tags operate without a separate external power source and obtain operating power generated from the reader. Passive tags are consequently much lighter than active tags, less expensive, and offer a virtually unlimited operational lifetime. The trade off is that they have shorter read ranges than active tags and require a higher-powered reader.
It would be desirable to provide a placard that is updateable and displays a customized message without a direct power source. It is also desirable to provide a placard that can reduce the uncertainty of locating a reserved seat.